Black Moms Are Raising Volume on Breastfeeding

These are the emotions that too many African American mothers feel regarding the decision to breastfeed.

Instead of having the cheerful "breast is best" line sung to them from family members, colleagues and even physicians, some black mothers have to fight through a host of assumptions, ill-informed statements and unsupportive banter.

The opposition that was thrown at me was overwhelming after I told family members I was choosing to breastfeed. It was as if they couldn't tell me enough about how the baby wouldn't get full, that my milk wouldn't come in, that my milk would run out, that it would be painful. And my personal favorite: I was being too cheap to buy formula.

Fortunately, more voices are chiming in to support black women who breastfeed. Kiddada Green, of the Black Mothers Breastfeeding Association, and Sojourner Marable Grimmett, of Table for Two, are among the growing number of women seeking to erase the stigma of breastfeeding.